A Part of the Solution

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Even if the Police who work hard in Hanover Park have an impressive anti-gang strategy, more is needed than just street-level outreach, community development, conflict mediation and changing community norms in order to reduce violence and criminality. We need to inspire hope in the children who live there. This is achieved through education and promoting the dignity of every child. Every child is a gift from God, a blessing, a possibility, a hope.

The aim of this project is to give hope to these children and to assist parents in their God-given role. I wanted to “begin small”, as the saying goes, but, inspired by the great Mother Teresa of Calcutta, I found her simple, yet profound phrase, inspiring: “I alone cannot change the world, but I can cast a stone across the waters to create many ripples.”

The first stage of this project is to help parents buy shoes for their children. It is my hope that this project can develop and eventually help the school to build a wall around their building so that no bullets fired by gangs will ever hit any children who are cared for, educated and respected in Blomvlei Primary School.